The 2024 Game Awards’ decision to allow Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree to be a Game of the Year (GOTY) contender has drawn much criticism. BAFTA’s Best Game Awards, however, aims to set more rigid and pedantic ground rules for its awards. BAFTA (British Academy Film Awards) will not consider the Elden Ring DLC as one of its GOTY contenders and candidates, giving a fairer chance to newer 2024 games.
The announcement came via a confirmation to Eurogamer; BAFTA’s Best Game award consideration will only be for full games. DLCs and other updates will then be relegated to the Evolving Game category.
“Our Best Game category specifically recognises full games which have released for the first time in the past year. DLC, along with other updates and enhancements made to games originally released before 25th November 2023, are part of the consideration in our Evolving Game category,” according to a BAFTA spokesperson.
Along with the confirmation, BAFTA has also announced its list of nominated games for its award ceremonies. All in all, BAFTA has considered 58 games spread over 17 award categories. Sadly, some of your favorite and recently released games might not qualify since BAFTA only counts games released between November 25, 2023, and November 15, 2024, for its 2024 award bracket.
So far, BAFTA has 10 promising contenders for its Best Game award (equivalent to Game of the Year):
- Animal Well
- Astro Bot
- Balatro
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Helldivers 2
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
- Metaphor: ReFantazio
- Thank Goodness You’re Here!
- Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2
However, there is another big and crucial difference between BAFTA and The Game Awards. Unlike The Game Awards ‘ year-end winner tally, BAFTA will not be unveiling its winners until April of the upcoming year or 2025.
So, by the time BAFTA unveils its 2024 Best Game, most of us will likely have forgotten how the Elden Ring DLC snatched another major award from other titles at The Game Awards. Still, it’s a nice touch and consideration from BAFTA, especially after the community outrage for The Game Awards.
